doctor disease redux

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Fri May 25 10:05:57 PDT 2001


Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema:
> Actually, as it occurs to me, are you quite sure he was in Spofford? Ten is pretty young to
> go there. Usually, the more benign juvenile arrestees have a chance of getting into the NSD,
> or Non-secure Detention program. If it wasn't Spofford, then in fact he may have been in
> some form or other of foster care. More likely, perhaps, if he succeeded in escaping. And if
> his parents were into drugs, I must say I have many doubts about them. Addicts have my
> sympathy in a general way, but as parents they are almost all major losers.

He _said_ he was in Spofford. I had never heard of it before then, although I saw hair-raising newspaper stories later. This was quite a few years ago; I'm sure the routes through the mill change from time to time. I don't know that the parents were addicts. Most illegal-drug users are neither addicts nor dealers, but they can still be arrested and jailed for long periods, especially if they belong to the wrong class or caste.

It's really a difficult situation. You have a community which has been severely damaged by racism and economic oppression as a mostly sealed-off enclave within a larger community which is increasingly subject to control addiction and hysteria. Much of the anxiety of the larger community is projected onto the smaller one, giving rise to political behaviors which cause further damage. You can try to step into this maelstrom to rescue an individual here and there, but it's delusional to suppose that anything short of a fundamental, revolutionary change in social relations and institutions will make a substantial difference to the majority.



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